{"id":322,"date":"2004-04-28T15:56:25","date_gmt":"2004-04-28T22:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/wp2\/uncategorized\/american-ayatollah\/"},"modified":"2004-04-28T15:56:25","modified_gmt":"2004-04-28T21:56:25","slug":"american-ayatollah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/letters-to-the-editor\/american-ayatollah\/","title":{"rendered":"American Ayatollah"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Kerry’s Catholic <\/p>\n

problem<\/a> by Cal Thomas<\/p>\n

When Kerry and other Catholic politicians say they accept church teaching but selectively deny it when it <\/p>\n

comes to abortion, they place the state above the church<\/b> and man above God. They mortgage their consciences to convenience and <\/p>\n

principle to pragmatism. Should such a person lead this nation?<\/b><\/p>\n

Ah, the arrogance of the Righteous Right. We have <\/p>\n

Calcified Cal Thomas ‘reasoning’ that John Kerry is not a ”good” Catholic and, therefore, not qualified to be President — only <\/p>\n

radical fundamentalists need apply. I think Cal was considerably more tolerant of Bush judicial nominee William Pryor, another Roman <\/p>\n

Catholic, who strongly opposes abortion but promises to enforce the law (wink-wink). If this is our litmus, how is Pryor trustworthy and <\/p>\n

Kerry not? And, who is Cal to judge the quality of their faith — Saint Peter or an American ayatollah? Judge not, least ye be judged, <\/p>\n

Cal.<\/p>\n

The self-righteous right dominates public discourse because they are relentlessly aggressive bullies and stunningly over-<\/p>\n

confident (after all, they believe god is only on their side). One cannot discuss color with people who only see black and white and, <\/p>\n

worse, insist that seeing color is a defect. This kind of conservative doesn’t simply lack nuance, he despises it and ridicules the <\/p>\n

ability to see more than one aspect of an argument. Better a president who can reconcile conflicting thoughts than one who can’t speak <\/p>\n

one clearly.<\/p>\n

I say it is precisely someone who puts the state above god, or, at least, can keep them separate, who should lead <\/p>\n

America. We have no need for a pharaoh. mjh<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

PS- The Albuquerque Journal finally published this two months later <\/p>\n

(6\/15\/04).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Kerry’s Catholic problem by Cal Thomas When Kerry and other Catholic politicians say they accept church teaching but selectively deny it when it comes to abortion, they place the state above the church and man above God. They mortgage their consciences to convenience and principle to pragmatism. Should such a person lead this nation? … Continue reading American Ayatollah<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}